


Swim

by spikewriter



Series: A Symphony of Ten [23]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-02 20:50:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2825708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spikewriter/pseuds/spikewriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She is his here and now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swim

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for Day Twenty-Three of my 2009 Advent Calendar on LiveJournal and edited for posting here.

When they first travelled together, he took her to a planet with the most beautiful swimming hole he'd ever seen. Rose's eyes had grown wide and she hadn't hesitated in stripping down to her undergarments and wading in. Jack had been traveling with them them and he'd opted to join her, though he, being Jack, stripped down a bit further.

To say the Doctor had not been tempted to join them was a lie, if for no other reason than to defend Rose against any unwanted attentions she might receive. But it swiftly became clear Rose was perfectly capable of defending herself and Jack unwilling to press his attentions after she made it clear she wasn't interested in going further than a little horseplay at that moment. The yelp Jack made when she ducked him under the water was rather amusing, though. Seeing that she had the matter well in hand, he sat on the shore, calling out the occasional helpful -- and snarky -- comment, enjoying watching them enjoy themselves. As much as there was a part of him that wanted to join in, he couldn't quite bring himself to unbend enough to shed his outer garments and dive into the icy water.

After Mickey had stayed in Pete's World, the Beast had prophesied she would die in battle and the Wire had taken her face, he took her back to that world for another bout of swimming. For once, the controls worked beautifully and the TARDIS landed on a late spring day when the weather was pleasantly warm but not yet hot. The water still looked inviting, ripples of blue-green breaking the surface at random intervals. "I thought you could use a break," was his only explanation.

Rose didn't need to be told twice, heading for the edge even as she began to shuck off her clothes. He followed at a slower pace, hands in his trouser pockets, coat left inside the TARDIS this time. "How is it?" he called out after she'd dived in, then broken the surface a little distance away, smoothing back wet hair from her face as she tread water.

"Wonderful. Sure you won't come in?" she replied, a bit of a teasing challenge in her voice. They'd been like this for weeks now, ordinary conversations somehow charged with a tension neither one of them had yet quite acknowledged. Well, not verbally, anyway. He'd been aware of that tension for some time, since before his regeneration. Just as he'd been tempted to join her on their first visit, so he'd been tempted to accept the flirtation she offered even then, the way her words had hinted his attentions might be more eagerly received than Jack's. He'd resisted, still bound by all the customs and prejudices of his race, unsure what he really had to offer her except some passing excitement of travel that masked the tired and bitter man within.

Things were different now; he could feel the old ties loosening with every passing day. Oh, there were still immutable laws of time and space that he dared not breach, but the other things, the stern insistence that one should not...dabble with the lesser races fading in the face of her. Rose filled a hole long left empty and and he was finding it harder to resist her charms, even though he knew she could never stay with him as long as he might like.

He'd mused long enough that Rose wrinkled her nose and started to swim away, apparently convinced he'd do the same as last time and sit on the shore. With a grin, he glanced around and spotted the old tree trunk hanging out partway over the water. Ambling over, simple pressure showed it would likely hold his weight and offered the added advantage of shielding him from her gaze for the moment. Swiftly, he stripped down to his pants, piling garments in a haphazard heap to one side. Then he waited until she'd swum into range. "Rose!"

Her head swiveled in the direction of the shore, which was his cue. Hopping onto the tree trunk, he raced forward, launching himself into a cannon ball at the last possible moment. Velocity and gravity took control and he hit the water hard, causing more than a little displacement -- and a loud squeal from Rose, much to his satisfaction.

"You're mad!" she insisted as he surfaced, pushing his hair back from his eyes. "What did you do that for?"

"To surprise you," he said. "You didn't think I'd come in, did you?"

"I didn't think you were crazy enough to go off a log like that, like you were some big kid."

He swam a little closer. "I assure you, Rose Tyler, I am not a kid."

The kiss proved it, the first time they'd actually kissed without one of them being possessed or the threat of imminent danger and destruction. He wondered why he'd waited so long as yet another old rule shattered into bits. Rose Tyler was the here and now and the world he'd known was the past. Centuries might sit on his shoulders, but here, treading water as they began to wrap themselves around one another, was most definitely a reason to go on.


End file.
